Precious Energy by Shannon Bramer

Precious Energy, the fourth collection of poetry from Hamilton-born poet and playwright Shannon Bramer, is a uniquely playful collection of vibrantly sad, peculiar, and often funny poems about domestic life, motherhood, and the baffled child that remains within us all even as we grow up and into whatever person we keep trying to become. Featuring a coterie of subjects, from fish sticks and LEGO pieces to mothers too tired to have sex and solitary swans in everyone’s basement, these poems dexterously navigate a landscape of domestic isolation, insecure attachments, and confused personal boundaries with honesty and unexpected humour.

Watch the Book Launch and Reading:

Praise for Precious Energy:

“Shannon Bramer writes with a candor that is as clever as it is devastating. Through masterfully crafted studies of the everyday, Bramer transcends, in the manner of Lydia Davis, drawing the domestic into utter sublimity.”
—Robin Richardson, author of Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis

“With this collection Bramer has redeemed modern poetry. Precious Energy is a must for anyone who has ever had their clothes drenched in a child’s vomit, seen their cell phone as the enemy, momentarily failed to recognize their lover or wondered what the point of all this is.”
—Andrew Kaufman, author of All My Friends are Superheroes and Small Claims

Press Coverage for Precious Energy:

“[Bramer’s] poems are elusive, yet grounded, achieving a kind of magical state that exists between the familiar elements of the domestic blended with the dreamy electricity and dark spaces of fairytales.” —rob mclennan’s blog

“Bramer’s voice in Precious Energy is mature in the best ways.  A preciously dark sense of humour goes a long towards salving life’s bruises.  Bramer realizes, fully, that survival always includes scars — both inside and out.” —Michael Dennis, Today’s Book of Poetry

“These poems are deadly serious and wildly whimsical, deeply domestic and linguistically fancy-free. They shine with a pathos so bright it gleams. I raced through the book and started again at the beginning. Highly recommended for poetry lovers and all human beings.” —Alison Pick, Open Book’s ‘Best of 2017’

The Cold Feel of the Forks and Knives: Poetry by Shannon Bramer —Literary Mama

Most Anticipated: Our Fall 2017 Poetry Preview —49th Shelf

Five Questions with Shannon Bramer —IFOA Blog

The Word on the Street Interview with Shannon Bramer —Open Book

Interview with Shannon Bramer, Part One  —Poetry Mini Interviews

“Known for her humorous and wry lyricism, Bramer succeeds in her exacting separation of sentiment from emotion.” —Evangeline Holtz, Canadian Literature

Poet and playwright Shannon Bramer lives in Toronto. Previous collections of poetry include: suitcases and other poems (winner of the 2000 Hamilton and Region Best Book Award), scarf, and The Refrigerator Memory. She has also published chapbooks with above/ground press and BookThug, and regularly conducts poetry workshops for students of all ages. An illustrated collection of poems for very young children is forthcoming from Groundwood Books in the spring of 2019. Precious Energy is her first full-length collection in over a decade.